WAR CRIME AGAINST THE CIVIL POPULATION

(This article contains drastic descriptions and photos)

Even in a war, there should be rules.

Respect for international law and the protection of civilians guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions are such fundamental principles. More than a two years after launching an unjustified and unprovoked full-scale invasion against its neighbor, we now know that the Russians do not respect any rules. The list of sins committed by Russian soldiers (performed with the approval of the command) is very long. In this article, we will focus on a few of them, although our report will certainly not reflect the whole tragedy and the immensity of suffering of the civilian population of Ukraine, which they experienced at the hands of Russian torturers. Mass murders, rapes on a huge scale, looting of property, torture, forced deportations (of children on a massive scale), missile terror against civilians and their homes, and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war are the main hallmarks of the Russian army today. It has been found by the UNITED NATIONS (UN) that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine. Many people in the world go a step further and claim – including the United States through Vice President Kamala Harris, who admitted during her speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany – that Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine.

CRIME IN BUCHA – a massacre on the outskirts of Kyiv

A war crime committed in March 2022 in the Ukrainian Bucha by the troops of the Russian Federation, which has become a symbol of Russian bestiality. It is estimated that more than 500 unarmed Ukrainian civilians have been murdered during the operation (the investigation is still ongoing). The massacre was discovered and made public on March 29, 2022, after the withdrawal of Russian troops as a result of their displacement by the armed forces of Ukraine. Hundreds of bodies of civilians have been found in towns near Kyiv that have left the Russian army. Everything indicates that they were executed. Mass graves were discovered in Bucha – many of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs.

The first victims died during the battle for the city on February 27, 2022. In many cases, there were not accidental victims, but civilians killed on purpose. Such was the fate of 56-year-old Tetiana Pomazenko, who was shot in front of her home at 122 Wokzalna Street, in the northern part of the city.

Russian troops carried out many executions – under the threat of throwing grenades inside, Russian soldiers ordered people to leave their homes, tied men’s hands, ordered them to kneel and shot them in the back of the head. According to the account of Władysław Kozłowski, who lived in Bucha with his mother, on March 7 Russian soldiers pulled everyone out of the shelter (where Kozłowski was also hiding), robbed them of their valuables, and shot many on the spot. The bodies were found in the back of an office building at 144 Jablonska Street. All the men had their hands and ankles tied. After the Ukrainian army entered the city, a number of bodies were discovered lying on one of the main streets of Bucha, Jablonska Street, on a stretch of about 1 kilometer. Most of these people were killed by snipers. Some of the bodies were next to the impact crater, others were near abandoned cars. Several bodies lay next to the bicycles. Drone footage showing the moment of kill 52-year-old woman identified as makeup artist Irina Filkina, whose body was found near her bike, was kept. She was fired upon by combat vehicles. Many bodies were found on Ivan Franko Street (and its vicinity). The victims appear to be random. This was the case in the house belonging to Sergei Gavryluk, who was killed along with his brother Roman and another random man who, according to witnesses, appeared on the property looking for mobile phone coverage. The bodies of two brothers were found in a drainage ditch. In the basement of one of the houses, the body of a young man was found, who had died from a gunshot to the head. At the intersection of Starojablonska and Franki Streets, charred bodies of a family of several people were found. The family was believed to have been shot dead in the car, the bodies later moved and attempted to be burned to cover up traces of the crime.

On April 3, 2022, Oleksiy Honcharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, published a video showing a shot at a car located on the section of the E373 road in Bucha, right at the exit from the city. Woman’s headless body was visible inside that car. According to the parliamentarian’s account, three women tried to get out of Bucha by car: a woman with her daughter and her mother, the body belonged to the oldest of them. On another section of the same road (closer to the city center) cars were crushed, run over by heavy equipment. Some of them contained the corpses of drivers.

After the liberation of the city, the bodies of 5 men with traces of torture were found in a children’s sanatorium located between Wokzalna and Institutskaya streets. The victims had their hands tied and were beaten before they died. Russian soldiers occupied the building of the glass factory at 84 Jablonska Street and turned it into their headquarters. Three bodies belonging to its employees were found in the factory. They were brutally tortured before they died. Dmytro Szaplihyn, 21, was beaten and burned with cigarettes before being shot in the chest. The second of the dead had his head cut off, which was then burned and then laid at his feet.       

The corpses of some of the victims were burned (or scorched). Others stretched out and arranged in such a way that there was one body in front of the buildings. According to Stanislav Aseyev, this is how Russian troops acted in Chechnya. Desecration of corpses also took place in other towns near Kiev. Oleksandr Markuszyn, the mayor of Irpien, reported that the bodies of shot people were run over with tanks, while President Zelensky reported that the dead were robbed of their shoes and watches. The issue of corpse desecration was also raised by US President Joe Biden when Russia was suspended from the UN Human Rights Council.

• EU Council President Charles Michel said he was “shocked by haunting images of atrocities committed by the Russian army in Kiev” and promised that the EU would support Ukraine and human rights organizations in collecting evidence for use in international courts.
• President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen: “I am appalled by the reports of unimaginable atrocities in areas where Russia is withdrawing. An independent investigation is urgently needed. The perpetrators of war crimes will be held accountable.”
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with CNN: “It is appalling and absolutely unacceptable that civilians are being attacked and killed.”
• UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated: “I am deeply shocked by the images of civilians killed in Bucha, Ukraine. It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.”
• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the event as a “violation of international law” and promised that Japan, working with the international community, would apply further sanctions against Russia.
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated: “We strongly condemn the murder of civilians in Ukraine, we remain committed to holding the Russian regime to account and will continue to do everything in our power to support the Ukrainian people.”
• French President Emmanuel Macron said the images from Bucha were “unbearable”. He showed sympathy for the victims and solidarity with Ukrainians. He also said that “Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes.”
• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking of Russia, called for an investigation into “war crimes and genocide”. He promised that Spain would do everything in its power to have the case investigated and the perpetrators brought to the International Criminal Court.
• German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck described the events in Bucha as “unjustified” and a “terrible war crime”.
• The President of the United States, Joe Biden, on April 4, 2022, stated that a trial was necessary for this crime and called for such a trial.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the mounting evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine is a “kick in the stomach”, promising the US will join its allies in documenting atrocities to hold the perpetrators to justice.
• The Ukrainian government condemned the situation as killing innocent civilians and noted that all the dead were in civilian clothes and unarmed. The Ukrainian government said it was collecting evidence of war crimes and would include evidence of the Bucha massacre.
• Pope Francis, in a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine, kissed the Ukrainian flag, which was brought from Bucha. He met with children from Ukraine. He condemned the crime and called for a ceasefire.
• UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said she was “appalled by the atrocities in Bucha and other towns in Ukraine” and that “reports of Russian forces attacking innocent civilians are appalling.” She also said those responsible would be held to account.
• Polish President Andrzej Duda said that criminals must be called criminals, brought to justice, and convicted. He also stated that the photos from Bucha refute the belief that a compromise in this conflict must be sought at all costs. He added that the Defenders of Ukraine need three things above all: weapons, weapons and more weapons.

IZIUM, HOSTOMEL, IRPIN – continuation of bloody crimes.

Dozens of other Ukrainian towns, such as Hostomel, Irpień or Izium have been experienced similarly to Bucza. The lives of people in these cities, towns and villages have been broken by the Russian invaders and their ruthlessness. Residential houses, blocks of flats, entire estates were destroyed, and hundreds of residents lost their lives. These towns create a map of genocide in Europe in the 21st century.

MASS RAPES – The Russian method of warfare

Another war crime committed by Russian troops is sexual violence against the Ukrainian population on a huge scale. It is an infamous tradition dating back to the times of the Red Army, dating back to World War II. It was common knowledge that where Red Army soldiers appear, brutal rapes and looting occur. The well-known and respected historian Antony Beevor, who has been dealing with the history of Russia and the Soviet Army for decades, wrote extensively about it. As one of the first, analyzing documents, reports from the front, he described the extent of sexual violence in the context of Russia’s liberation of the occupied territories during the march on Berlin. It is no different in Ukraine. Rape is something horrific, effectively intimidating. This is a universal psychological technique, aimed at inflicting suffering, used consciously by the Russians.

The details of the UN report on rapes by Russians in Ukraine are scary. The findings of the Independent International Investigation Commission for Ukraine clearly show that rape is used by the Russians as a kind of weapon. The report contains the shocking story of a 22-year-old resident of the Kiev area. In March, two Russian soldiers broke into her home, raped her several times, and then sexually assaulted her husband. Then the couple was forced to have sex in front of their torturers. Finally, one of the Russian soldiers forced the couple’s 4-year-old daughter to perform oral sex. “In most cases, the rapes were accompanied by torture. Defenseless family members were also forced to watch the rape suffer,” the report said. In another village near Kiev, a Russian soldier dragged a 50-year-old woman outside a house. He shot her husband, who was trying to protect her. The Russian repeatedly raped the woman. He only stopped when other soldiers pulled him away from her. The woman’s husband died two days later from his injuries. The report also includes the testimony of an 83-year-old resident of the Chernihiv region. She told investigators that she was raped in the presence of her disabled husband. A 56-year-old resident of the Kiev area testified that three Russian soldiers broke into her house. Two of them raped her, the third watched. As they left the house, they stole food and money. A few weeks later, the woman found out that her husband had been tortured by the Russians. Then he was killed. The report noted that some rape victims later committed suicide. As noted, the actual number of rapes is not known. Many girls and women do not testify in this case – they are afraid of stigmatization. I was so ashamed; I was so afraid – one of the victims told the commission. All the victims I work with blame themselves for the fact that the aggressors noticed them – and that’s why they were raped – says a psychologist working with raped Ukrainian women. The report also emphasized that rape is used by torturers to forcefully inseminate women. The idea is to mix the nation ethnically and psychologically traumatize entire generations. Children conceived as a result of war rape are very often treated as “living memories of the conflict”.

Two women from a small town near Kiev dared to talk about being raped by Russian soldiers. Natasha was raped for an hour and a half. “I was just thinking about my son so he wouldn’t kill him,” she says. After all that, she crawled to her house. There she found the dead body of her husband. The events reported by 44-year-old Natasza and 42-year-old Wika took place on March 9. The Russians then controlled the area after an unsuccessful attack on Kiev. After dark, between nine and ten o’clock, three Russian soldiers knocked on the door of Wiki’s house. They demanded that she go with them. She did it fearing for her life. They took her to another house. A man opened the door. A soldier named Oleg, about 21, pointed a gun at him and said they wanted his wife. The host told them to leave, saying that they would not kill him, because he was Russian, just like them. But as he turned around, one of the soldiers shot him in the neck. And then he went inside, found Natasha, and dragged her out of the building. The soldiers took the women to another house on the same street. Its inhabitants fled at the beginning of the war, and the Russians set up a den there. A soldier called Oleg took Natasza upstairs, and the other man stayed with Vika on the ground floor. He told her his name was Daniel and he was 19 years old. Same as Wiki’s younger son. She tried to defend herself, but he told her not to disturb and “do your job”. He threatened to kill her otherwise. – He was very aggressive… I don’t know, did he take Viagra? Some drugs. He was acting like crazy. Thank God, he didn’t kill me, and I was able to [finally] escape – Wika tries to speak in a calm voice. She was raped several times. Together with Sky News reporters (and earlier with prosecutors) she returned to the scene to talk about what she experienced. Natasha spoke with journalists on the phone. A soldier named Oleg threatened to hurt the boy if the woman resisted. She says she felt “like the living dead”, she didn’t know what to do. “The only thing I was thinking about was my son, so he wouldn’t kill him,” she says. She was raped for an hour and a half. After all that, she crawled to her house. There she found the dead body of her husband. – I stayed until morning. I couldn’t sleep, she says. She managed to escape with her teenage son to Austria, where she now resides. Both Natasza and Wika, despite the passage of time, are unable to shake off the trauma they experienced. They can’t sleep, they keep crying. However, they speak loudly about what happened to them. Also, to encourage others. “I want the women [who were also raped] to break their silence. I know there are a lot of them, says Wika. – You must talk about it. And they must be punished, she adds.

We receive only scraps of information from Ukraine, absolutely not giving a real picture of the scale of sexual crimes committed. On April 6, Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian human rights ombudsman, reported on BBC television what was happening in Bucha. 24 women and girls, aged 14 to 24, were trapped in the basement. The nightmare lasted for many hours. Nine of them died. Denisova wrote on social media that a 16-year-old pregnant girl and her 78-year-old grandmother were raped in the Kherson region. An 11-year-old boy was raped in front of his mother tied to a chair, or it was done to women in front of their children. The 20-year-old woman was raped “in all possible ways at once”. In May 2022, Lyudmila Denisova reported that 56 people reported acts of sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers via the Ukrainian psychological helpline in just one day. Most of them allegedly took place in the Kharkiv oblast, which was liberated by the Ukrainian army. On September 23, 2022, Erik Mose, chairman of the UN commission of inquiry into Ukraine, announced that evidence had been found of Russian soldiers raping people aged 4 to 82. The commission collected accounts from 150 witnesses in Ukrainian cities. “Cases where children have been raped, tortured and unlawfully detained” have been documented, the statement said. In October last year, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, revealed that the organization had verified more than 100 reports from Ukraine, but – as she stated – this is “the tip of the iceberg”, and the estimate of the real scale of sexual violence used by Russians is not accurate. She added that the first cases of crime were reported just three days after the start of the invasion. Patten has no doubt that Russian soldiers use rape as a weapon of war – their actions are planned and intentional. In the spring of 2022, refugees from Ukraine cross the Polish-Ukrainian border in Medyka. Tatiana is 17 years old and has long black braids. A week ago, a Russian soldier held her head in his fist. Tatiana hasn’t cut her hair yet, but she really hates her braids. Maybe if she didn’t have them, she wouldn’t have attracted the Russian’s attention and what happened wouldn’t have happened? Svetlana walks next to her, and with her two children. She is carrying her one-year-old daughter in her arms. Her 6-year-old son walks on his own. Svetlana cannot forget about the hasp. She can’t forgive herself for forgetting to put it on, to close the door. Perhaps the Russian who went down the stairs to the basement would give up if he encountered a locked door? It’s her own fault she thinks… For five days she can’t look into the eyes of her son who was watching everything. Nastya walks, holding her teenage daughter’s hand. She keeps thinking about the fact that she didn’t stock up enough food in the cellar. She was busy with other things, and the war came so suddenly. On the third day after the Russians took the village, she came out of the basement looking for something to eat. If she had stayed hidden like her neighbors, she would not have been kidnapped by five soldiers. Her teenage daughter asks nothing but knows everything. The only lucky thing was that she managed to avoid the fate of her mother. The women silently board the bus. They leave for Warsaw.

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there have been allegations from Ukrainian politicians that Russian soldiers rape women and children. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna accused Russian soldiers of raping and then killing Ukrainian women for hours. Some rapes were committed in front of children. “Systematic rape is one of the most heinous weapons of war, aimed at harming and terrorizing. Victims of Russian war crimes fleeing Ukraine need special care and support,” wrote European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson. At the same time, she assured that she was working together with other European politicians to “coordinate activities aimed at meeting their needs”.

Shocking is the account of a Ukrainian woman imprisoned in a shed, repeatedly raped and tortured by the Russians. – Six men undressed me by force, put me on the table and started touching me – said 52-year-old Alla from Izium. Her nightmare lasted 10 days. She says she was determined to commit suicide. Russia controlled Izium, a town in northeast Kharkiv Oblast, from March to September, when a Ukrainian counter-offensive forced Russian troops and local collaborators to retreat. Moments later, horrific details emerged about the crimes committed by Russian forces during the brutal occupation. Civilians who survived the occupation talk about cases of rape and torture at the hands of Russian troops. Some of the civilian bodies recovered from the Izium mass burial site show signs of torture. Alla’s story is another shocking example of the growing body of evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian military. The woman told the journalists of The Washington Post about her drama. Russian services began to visit her and her husband at home. First, they said they were looking for weapons or information about their son, whom they suspected of serving in the SBU. They urged him to start cooperation with Russia. Later, the Russian-appointed mayor of Izium and the men who identified themselves as FSB agents repeatedly demanded that Alla return to work at the Kharkiv gas company. Gas supplies to much of the city had been cut off and Russian officials wanted to restore them. Alla insisted that as a manager, she did not have the necessary technical knowledge to get the gas flowing again. July 1 at 11:00, two cars drove up in front of the family’s house – both with the Russian lettering “Z”. About 10 men jumped out of the vehicles, including those who had visited them earlier. They put sacks over the heads of the woman and her husband, tied their hands with tape and stuffed them into the trunks of cars. When the cars stopped, Alla heard from the occupiers: “We will beat the Ukrainians here, you will not leave here alive. Either you accept our rules and admit that you live in Russia, or you will die. And no one will find you, ever.” Alla found herself in a small, dark shed in the medical clinic, which was used as a detention center and a place of interrogation and torture. An hour later, the six men returned to the shed, put the bag back on her head, and led her to another building nearby, where they demanded that she undress. She refused. “Then they stripped me by force, laid me on a table and started touching me,” she said. The woman remembered that they were laughing at the time. The commander set rules on how Alla should behave: When men enter the shed, she should be naked from the waist down and facing them. She refused. “I started crying and screaming, but he took off my clothes and asked his soldiers who would rape me first,” she said.

For three days, the commander forcibly touched her and forced her to have sex while her husband was held hostage in a nearby garage. Alla said that she heard her husband’s screams as the soldiers beat him and overheard “the commander told him that he had raped me”. It was so stuffy in the shed that it was hard for her to breathe. She scratched her name on the wall of the prison so that her fate could be determined in the future. She begged the soldiers for drugs, which they eventually delivered. They also gave her two buckets – one for the toilet and one for grits and stale bread. She also recalled that through a hole in the wall she once saw men walking her husband to the garage, beaten so badly he could barely stand. – I was determined to commit suicide. There were some thorns inside the barn, and I was wearing a bra, so I thought about hanging myself. Failed to. I started crying. I cried all the time. They heard my cry and came back and started harassing me again – said Alla. The men continued to demand information from her about the gas supply in Izium. They electrocuted her feet and laughed when she screamed. “I can’t express how painful it was”, she said. The commander also asked about the money on her credit card and in her house, which they later stole from her – explained Alla. Men accused her of lying about even the basic information she gave them. Finally, after requesting details from her regarding the extraction and distribution of natural gas in Izium, they said they were satisfied with her response and that she and her husband would be released. On July 10, they were blindfolded and abandoned at a gas station on the side of the road. After recovering, they fled through Russia, Belarus, and Poland until they reached the part of Ukraine not occupied by Russia, where Alla underwent gynecological treatment due to torture. In September, a few days after the liberation of Izium, Alla and her husband returned to their hometown. When the Russians left, their son also returned. They decided to visit an abandoned clinic where they had been tortured just two months earlier. Inside the main clinic building, where the woman and other detainees were tortured, the German words “The truth will set you free” were written on the wall, a reference to the Nazi words they used as the password on the gate to Auschwitz. In the garage where her husband was being held, Alla found a dirty yellow foam mattress on which she had slept and dirty clothes which she used as a pillow. We are Ukrainians. We stand with Ukraine in this fight. We were punished for that,” she said.

March 3 – Katerina Tkaczowa, 18, was with her parents at home in the village of Worzel, when several tanks with the letter “Z”, which Russian troops mark their vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine, drove down the street. Her mother Natalia and father Valery told her to stay in the basement where they were hiding, and they went out into the street. Katerina then heard the shots. She told Amnesty International: “As the tanks passed, I jumped over the fence into a neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if my parents were alive. I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road and my father lying face down on the other side of the street. I saw big holes in his coat. The next day I approached them. My father had six large holes in his back and my mother had a smaller hole in her chest.” Katerina said her parents were plainclothes and unarmed. On March 10, an evacuation volunteer from the Kiev area helped Katerina leave Worzel. This volunteer told Amnesty International that he had seen the bodies of Katerina’s parents lying in the street near her home. Video verified by Amnesty International shows the couple writing the names, dates of birth and death of Katerina’s parents on a piece of cardboard, then placing it next to their bodies covered with blankets.

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN ZAPORIZHZHIA–Putin’s apocalyptic blackmail

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant located in Enerhodar in Ukraine is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe – it has 6 reactors with a capacity of 950 MW each. On February 27, the Russians began drawing troops into the city. On March 3, a Russian convoy of about 100 units of heavy equipment entered the city. Russian troops have made attempts to take over the nuclear power plant. On the night of March 3-4, 2022, Russian troops shelled the power plant. There was a fire in the training building. The fire was extinguished, but the third power unit was disconnected from the single power system. On March 4, the area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was occupied by the Russians. They gathered the management of the nuclear power plant and declared that the power plant is now owned by Rosatom. After capturing the power plant, the unexploded bombs were detonated by the Russians directly on its territory. The order to shoot at the nuclear power plant and blow up the ammunition was given by Major General of the Rosgvardiya Alexander Dombrovsky.

For months, Russian soldiers with heavy equipment have been stationed at the power plant, as well as employees of the Rosatom concern. The facility has been occupied by the aggressor’s forces since the beginning of March last year. As a result of the military actions of the aggressors, the power plant infrastructure was disconnected from the grid several times. The safety of the nuclear facility, as the Ukrainian side argues, is seriously threatened. The Russians want to connect the power plant to the Russian energy system as soon as possible. What would happen if the war disrupted these plans and for some reason, they didn’t manage to restore the power? Ukrainian experts warn that in such a case the core of a nuclear reactor could melt, which would result in a catastrophe. It would be comparable to that at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, where the power system was destroyed due to the tsunami. The meltdown of the reactor core then began in just a few hours. Due to the occupation of the power plant and the interference of Rosatom employees in its work, the possibilities of the Ukrainian side to maintain the Zaporozhian nuclear power plant in a safe regime are significantly limited, Ukrainian Energoatom informs. It calls on the international community to intervene immediately to demilitarize the power plant area and the nearby town of Enerhodar, withdraw the Russian army from there and restore Ukrainian control over the facility. Earlier reports also show that the Russians have deployed heavy military equipment in the power plant’s rooms, which in the event of a fire or a major failure will significantly hinder repair work. If the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant by Russian troops continues for another year or two, it may not be possible to restore the facility to operation, Petro Kotin, head of the Ukrainian company Enerhoatom, recently said. In the opinion of the president of Enerhoatom, the invaders are not even trying to connect the power plant to their energy system, because they understand that it would be unrealistic. During the nearly 10-month occupation of the facility, the plant was also seriously damaged. The losses are estimated at approximately 40 billion Ukrainian hryvnias.

Experts have repeatedly alarmed that the Kremlin is using the power plant as a shield. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency assured that efforts are being made to ensure the safety of the facility. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has been accused of posing a threat to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. Strong explosions were recorded, for example, in the facility in the Zaporizhia region. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has repeatedly intervened in the matter of safety. The plans to create a security zone were agreed by the head of the IAEA with the Ukrainian side. Consultations with both sides of the conflict will continue in the future, assured the director of the agency. “It is essential that the zone focuses solely on preventing nuclear accidents. I continue my efforts to achieve this goal with a sense of urgency,” Grossi tweeted. The plan is to help prevent a nuclear accident by stopping shelling into and out of the zone around Europe’s largest power plant. Although no fighting has been recorded in the facility itself in recent weeks, it came under intense fire a month ago. “The distinct sounds of warfare continue to be heard in the vicinity of the facility, adding to the lingering threat to nuclear safety,” the IAEA said.

“The shelling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant has raised already great fears in the West to a new level,” the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. “Through targeted artillery fire, such a power plant can be made into a super-Chernobyl. Russian military doctrine does not preclude the use of tactical nuclear weapons when the military is not advancing. Putin would then lead to an escalation of the conflict, which he has so far avoided. On the other hand, Putin, under increasing pressure to succeed, is showing his opponent what else he can do to him. This presents the West with a difficult task: it must show the lone bear in its den that it not only has claws, but in such a way as not to increase its madness. Putin wants to fight as long as he achieves what he considers a victory. And by all means.”

In the daily Volksstimme we read that the degree of madness in the war in Ukraine may be even higher. “Now the nuclear threat has become real. (…) What drives Russian generals to attack a nuclear power plant instead of protecting or avoiding it? In order to cut off Ukrainians from all supplies, the Russian military does not shy away from a war crime, such as an attack on a nuclear power plant. Chernobyl is on the line to the power. This atomic ruin is also in Ukraine. When there was a reactor meltdown in 1986, young soldiers with shovels and masks were sent to the site to remove the radioactive waste. Death squad in times of peace. Now, during the war, not only Ukrainians, but also Russian attackers would be irradiated. People are indifferent to the Kremlin.”

The newspaper “Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung” estimates that the case of Zaporozhye shows how quickly the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine can escalate further. “A damaged nuclear reactor would be a threat to the whole of Europe. Whether then a situation would arise in which NATO would become involved in the conflict, as the head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, believes, is another question. NATO has decided not to help Ukraine through a direct strike. The reason is the fear of a nuclear war with Russia. It would be no less after a deliberately or accidentally caused atomic catastrophe. And NATO couldn’t do anything anyway if the nuclear cloud continued to the west. This war will most likely escalate differently: more bombs on Ukrainian cities, more civilian casualties, more refugees. Putin’s insane lust for conquest is aimed primarily at Ukrainians. And that’s what we should be most worried about.”

The daily “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” writes: “American historian Barbara Tuchman said 40 years ago that many events of crucial importance in world history – from the fall of Troy to the Vietnam War – can be explained by the fact that those in power at the time were simply stupid. For millennia, Tuchman argued, people who lacked the will, ability, or interest to consider the consequences of their actions made decisions that changed the fate of entire nations and destroyed the lives of millions of people.

OTHER EXAMPLES OF RUSSIAN TERROR ON UKRAINIAN SOIL

BOMBING A SHOPPING MALL IN KYIV AND SURROUNDING RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS

March 21, 2022. On the night from Sunday to Monday, the Russians shelled the north-western part of Kiev. A shopping center and nearby residential buildings were destroyed. Vitaly Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev, informed that several residential buildings in the Podil district were damaged and set on fire during the attack. A shopping center and cars parked in front of it also went up in flames. Located in a residential area, among blocks of flats, a large shopping center building was hit by “very strong enemy fire” – probably an ISKANDER missile. Part of the building was completely burnt down, the parking lot and vehicles on it were destroyed, the explosion also damaged the neighboring residential buildings. The explosion that shook the shopping center was so powerful that it was felt throughout Kiev. Many dead and injured.

MISSILE ATTACK ON THE STATION IN KRAMATORSK

A war crime committed by the Russians on April 8, 2022, in Kramatorsk. The massacre killed 59 people (including 5 children) and over 109 were injured. After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the station became a transfer point for the evacuation of refugees from war zones. On the night of April 5, 2022, Russian troops raided a viaduct near the Barvinkove station in the Izium district of the Kharkiv region. The Russian army destroyed the only railway route from the Ukrainian-controlled cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Lyman, destroying the viaduct. After shelling, three evacuation trains were blocked in the vicinity of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Passengers of the blocked trains were placed in the railway station. At the time of the attack, there were about 4,000 people in and around the station waiting to be evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine before the expected offensive in Donbass. Among the people were mainly women, the elderly, and children. According to the head of Ukrainian railways, Oleksandr Kamishin, two rockets hit the station. Pavlo Kyrylenko accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians. “They wanted to take as many peaceful people as hostages as possible, they wanted to destroy everything Ukrainian,” he wrote on Telegram. In the first reaction on Instagram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia “borderless evil.”

BORODZIANKA BOMBARDING

Intensive bombardment of the city of Borodzianka by Russian military forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The destruction of residential buildings there is much greater than in other towns of the Kiev region. Volodymyr Zelensky announced the devastation of the city on April 7, 2022, a week after the discovery of the Bucha massacre.

Before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Borodzianka, a quiet “one-street town” 30 km northwest of Kiev, had a population of about 13,000. As Russian forces fought for Kiev, Borodzianka, which is located on a strategically important road, was the target of numerous Russian airstrikes. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrski stated that there were no barracks or military equipment in the city. According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Russian soldiers used cluster munitions and Tornado and Uragan rockets and artillery systems to destroy buildings, which they fired “at night, when the maximum number of people will be at home.” Most of the town’s buildings were destroyed, including almost the entire main street. Russian bombs hit the centers of the buildings and caused them to collapse. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that many residents lay dying for up to a week, many others were buried alive as a result of airstrikes. Russian soldiers shot at those who came to their aid. Venediktova also accused Russian soldiers of “murdering, torturing and beating” civilians. Some residents hid in cellars for 38 days. On March 26, 2022, Russia, repulsed from Kiev, gradually withdrew from the region to concentrate on Donbass. The mayor of Borodzianka said that as the Russian convoy moved through the city, Russian soldiers fired through every open window. He estimated that at least 200 people were killed. By the time the Russians retreated, only a few hundred inhabitants remained in Borodzianka, with about 90% of the inhabitants fleeing, and an unknown number died in the rubble. The retreating Russian troops left mines all over the city. In early April, when Borodzianka was liberated from Russian occupation, the Ukrainian authorities organized a visit there for representatives of foreign media, so that journalists could see for themselves the effects of fighting and Russian aggression. At a meeting with journalists, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrski said that what happened in Borodzianka was “one of the greatest tragedies in Ukraine.” According to the minister, rescue services tried to remove the rubble a month ago, from which it was still possible to extract people alive at the time, but all rescue attempts ended in failure as a result of Russian shelling that lasted for many days. Therefore, search and rescue operations could be resumed only after the town was liberated. Representatives of Agence France-Presse arrived in Borodzianka on April 5. They didn’t see any bodies, but they reported extensive damage at the time, with some homes “simply no longer existing.” The death toll was unclear: one resident reported that he knew of at least five civilians killed, but others were under rubble, and no one had yet attempted to extricate them. On April 7, Venediktowa announced that 26 bodies had been discovered in the rubble of two destroyed buildings. She stressed that Borodianka “is the most damaged city in the area” and that “only civilians were targeted; there are no military facilities.” President Volodymyr Zelensky then said that the death toll in Borodzianka was “even worse” than that in Bucha. Local mortuaries were so overburdened that corpses had to be transported 100 kilometers or more.

AIR ATTACK ON THE THEATRE IN MARIUPOL AND DESTRUCTIONS IN THE CITY

A war crime committed by the Russians on March 16, 2022, in Mariupol. As a result of a direct hit by an aerial bomb on the theater building, about 300 people who sought shelter there died after losing their homes in the bombings during the aggression of the Russian army in 2022. The theater suspended operations on February 24, 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the siege of Mariupol, it was used as a shelter for residents and refugees from nearby towns, whose apartments and houses were destroyed as a result of Russian air raids, mainly women and children. Around March 12, large letters “Dieti” (Russian for “children”) were painted on the square on both sides of the building to mark it as a civilian facility. On the morning of March 16, 2022, the theater was destroyed by a direct hit by a laser-guided aerial bomb, possibly a KAB-500L. Between 800 and 1,300 people may have been inside at the time of the attack. The shelter in the basement of the theater survived the impact, but the exit from it was destroyed. Rescue efforts were hampered by ongoing street fighting and shelling. Rescue teams were only able to clear debris and bring people to the surface when fighting ceased. By March 18, about 130 people managed to get out of the rubble. According to the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, on March 19, more than 1,000 people could still be in the theater’s basement. On March 25, the Mariupol City Council reported that about 300 people had died as a result of the bombing of the theater. 

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov described the attack as an act of genocide and state terrorism by Russia. “The day will come when a tribunal will be established that will restore justice to our people and punish the Russians as the aggressors were punished in the past,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referring to this event. When all those guilty of war crimes against Ukrainians will be in the halls of the International Criminal Court and national courts, added the president. Zelensky called it “one of the most terrible crimes of this war” when people, including women and children, were killed, hiding from Russian aggression. Zelensky recalled that the inscription “Children” was visible from the air in front of the theater and the Russians knew who the target of their attack was. – A civilian facility, deliberately destroyed by the occupiers. To this day, we do not know the exact number of dead. Hundreds of people. Or thousands, Zelensky said. The exact number of victims is currently impossible to determine – Mariupol is under Russian occupation. According to various estimates and reports, about 300 people may have died in the bombing of the theater. The Associated Press agency, based on its own investigation, estimated in May 2022 that nearly 600 people were killed.

MISSILE ATTACKS ON CIVIL HOUSES: DNIPRO, ZAPORIZHIA
ATTACKS ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE OF UKRAINE
BOMB ATTACKS ON HOSPITALS, SCHOOLS, KINDERGARTENS
CITIES COMPLETELY DESTROYED: MARJINKA

The inhabitants of many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have experienced vicious attacks by the Russian Federation that have broken or taken their lives. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, thousands of innocent Ukrainians have been killed in similar attacks, often using weapons prohibited by international law – including cluster munitions, white phosphorus, and thermobaric weapons. The Russian strategy to break the national spirit of Ukraine very often targets the defenseless population. Attacks in such an extremely disgusting and shameful way are carried out in order to deprive people of hope and will to fight for the independence of their own country. In Ukraine, the Russians destroyed hundreds of schools, kindergartens, and other educational institutions, and they also bombed when children were staying there (who often died as a result of attacks). The actions of the invader’s troops show a complete lack of respect for international law and human rights. Civilians are killed en masse and deliberately. Cases of bombing of critical infrastructure throughout the country are common: CHP plants, waterworks, gas pipelines, bridges, etc. Since the beginning of the invasion, around 1,000 critical infrastructure facilities have been destroyed in Ukraine. On dark and cold winter days, entire cities are deprived of electricity, heating and access to drinking water – this has a huge negative impact on the lives of millions of Ukrainians, on their ability to survive. The Russians are also not sparing hospitals – it is estimated that at least several hundred hospitals have been destroyed in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion. One example of the exceptional callousness and brutality of the Russian torturers is the attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022 – children, pregnant women and young mothers with newborns were in the hospital during the rocket attack. Unfortunately, there have been fatalities. Depriving civilians of access to medical care is part of Russia’s war strategy in Ukraine. Cases of complete destruction of entire cities are known, such as Marjinka, a city which, when it existed, was located in the Donetsk region. All the above events – without the slightest doubt – are war crimes committed by the Russians on Ukrainian soil.

From the beginning of its attack on Ukraine, Russia has been using terrorist methods, and with each passing month of the conflict, it intensifies its bestial actions, leading to a deepening of the humanitarian crisis, which has taken on enormous proportions. The biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the end of World War II. The scale of the crime committed against the people of Ukraine is incomprehensible. No one in their right mind can understand how such a fate can be prepared for defenseless, innocent people who are peaceful towards the world and other Nations. No one can understand how you can unleash such a brutal and bloody war, which is completely pointless. How can genocide be committed, human rights violations, how can millions of people be made homeless.

It remains for us to support the brave people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom, stand by them, be a support as long as it is needed. We can only believe that the torturers will bear the well-deserved punishment for the crimes they have committed, that they will answer for every Ukrainian life lost once and for all. We believe that the heroic defenders of Ukraine will be victorious, and that the Ukrainian flag will once again fly proudly over all Ukrainian cities, throughout its territory. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!

Source:

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